The New Moon is a time to go inward and explore the darkness. From the darkness sprouts all new life. A lotus must spiral through the mire before unfolding to the morning sun. A baby must incubate in the lightless womb for many months. Night falls daily, and we slumber in the absence of the sun. The New Moon opens a portal for us to release that which no longer serves us. This particular moon, in Cancer, asks us to consider the following questions:

What nourishes you?

What environment provides beauty for you?

What aspects of your life need drastic change?

Are there family patterns you are unconditionally playing out?

We have the opportunity to weed our inner garden, plant new seeds, and create something so amazing, something we have only glimpsed in our imaginations.

Tonight, for my New Moon celebration and inner gardening, I am leading an elemental journey through music and dance in the town where I grew up. I am here in South Carolina, getting back to my roots, and wriggling down deep to the source of my cycles, patterns and pre-determined personality quirks. Tonight as I dance, I choose to dance the demons keeping me from succeeding to the surface, so they can experience love and appreciation for the ways in which they have served me. As they arise from the deepest, darkest realms of my roots, may they be released with ease and grace. May my process feel beautiful and raw, an inspiration to the dancers around me; a source of strength for them to do that same. My prayer is for us all to feel at Home in our Own skin and bones. Temples in the flesh.

Please continue reading to take in the words of amazing astrologist Pat Lilies, who write for The Power Path.

I hope this New Moon blog inspires, ignites and encourages you to make any changes needed in your life. We are all in this together, and we one of us make a change, it's felt worldwide in subtle and sometimes obvious ways. Blessings and Beauty to you now and always <3

The following write up was excerpted from www.ThePowerPath.com

ASTROLOGICAL NOTES:

The emotional dial is turned way up at this point in the year when the Moon is in its own sign, Cancer, and is joined by the Sun for New Moon. Mercury and Mars also in Cancer are joining the party. A party for Cancer includes all those things she rules ~ food, family and the comforts of home. With the Moon as ruler and as the cardinal water sign, Cancer rules our emotional bodies, our receptive nature that waxes and wanes like the Moon’s light bringing constant shift and change. The fourth sign of the zodiac is a curious mixture of security needs and the unending flow of adaptation to change. Cancer rules the fourth house of the zodiac where she is guardian of the home, our foundations, ancestors, our intimate private lives, the mother. Introverted Cancer rules the breasts and the stomach translating to nourishment and what will support family. The watery, Moon-ruled nature of Cancer greatly heightens and sensitizes intuition, and she can feel the shifts in emotional tides before they are even expressed. Often accused of moodiness, it’s just her responsiveness to the emotional currents that puts Cancer in a different stream than the rational, intellectual concerns of those around her. Captain Picard in Star Trek always included his beautiful empath in his council for good reason.

Mercury and Mars (14º) are also in Cancer and are EXACTLY opposing Pluto in Capricorn (14º)! Oh my!

Mars has been highly interactive with the Sun and Moon in the last two months. There’s something we need to pay attention to here. Mars adds an element of haste and urgency to everything, we get too much on our plates and the energetic feeling is one of intensity. Add those ingredients to the mental functions of Mercury and in the sign of emotional Cancer and you have a recipe for breaking out of deep emotional patterns, family patterns, patterns that run in the background, feeling patterns, patterns that hold your personal power small and rigid. Cancer tends to develop defenses to protect its emotional sensitivity, so if defensiveness rears its head, check inside that exposed emotional artery for clogged energy that wants release. Avoid dwelling on emotional replays of past hurts and slights and use Mars’ energy for activities that enhance the feeling of Mars empowerment and action. With Mars, God of War, opposite Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, you may see power struggles and resistance with others or within yourself. There’s a push to win, dominate, break through or to accomplish something big and make big changes that free your emotional energy and really change up your life.

Mercury and Mars will each take a turn at triggering first Pluto in Capricorn and then Uranus in Aries from July 15 (New Moon) until July 25. (Just what the Sun did last week). It creates a background of crisis/opportunity that is exemplified by Greece and the European Union situation. Greece is a Capricorn country as is Brussels, Belgium, seat of the EU (and Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iran, Mexico). Greece is exposing the financial, governmental debt game that they are resistant to and no longer willing to play in a win/lose paradigm ~ a perfect example of the crisis and exposure of no longer functional concepts in our social/financial/governmental/corporate worlds (all Capricorn ruled) by Pluto’s passage through this sign 2008-2024.

We have two annual retrogrades coming up soon. Uranus in Aries moves retrograde from July 26-December 25 moving ever closer to a square with Pluto until December. We’ve completed all seven exact squares of these two collective, transpersonal planets – the birth is complete. Now we learn to live with the infant. Uranus can open you to the unexpected in whatever house it transits through. Fresh energy, inspiration, unconventional turns, and discoveries await you. The rebel within you may soon make itself heard.

Venus also moves retrograde on July 25 having just entered 1º Virgo. She will begin moving direct on September 6. Retrogrades can help turn us inward and encourage extreme manifestations of the planet. You may find yourself more creative in your finances, more organized in your personal space, more critical of your relationships, more willing to make health-oriented changes to improve your magnetic attraction. Watch for Venus as Evening Star on the 18th meeting with the crescent moon as she marks her final gateway completing a long cycle and marking her descent and disappearance into the underworld before she reappears next month as the morning star beginning a new cycle in Leo. For a deeper study of this beautiful cycle of the feminine see http://venusalchemy.com/venus-initiation-teleclass-series/

At this Cancer New Moon, realign with the feminine gifts of support, nourishment and fertility. Bring your feelings to conscious awareness in every situation you find yourself in and heed the messages of your feeling state. Honor the feelings of others. Nurture the new beginnings of all you want to see grow in your life.07/22 Sun enters Leo 9:30 PM Mountain Time